Art in the Park a Field Guide a Field Guide to Art in the Park 2 3 Using This Guide

ART IN THE PARK A FIELD GUIDE A FIELD GUIDE TO ART IN THE PARK 2 3 USING THIS GUIDE

Queen Elizabeth Olympic This book is a field guide to the 31 permanent and temporary artworks in the Park. There’s a map at Park was the first Olympic the back and each artwork has a number to help you locate them. Going to find the artworks is just Park to integrate artworks as important as all the reading and looking you can into the landscape right from do here. the start. We worked with These artworks have been made to be experienced in the landscape – up close and from afar. Touch established and emerging them, sit inside them, run across them, walk beneath them. Gaze up, make games, take photographs, put artists, international and local, yourself in their shadow. to create an ambitious, diverse art programme that reflects the Park’s identity as a place for people from around the world and around the corner.

Some of these artworks are large and striking, while others are smaller and harder to find. All of them were created specifically for this Park by contemporary artists who worked closely with the architects, designers and construction teams to develop and install their works.

Their inspirations are varied: the undulating landscape, buried histories, community memories, song titles, flowing water, energy, ideas of shelter and discovery. Yet all of them are rooted here, each of them sparking new conversations with their immediate environment and this richly textured part of east London. “The trees mark time, the rings 2 3trace landscapes and lives that HISTORY TREES have gone before.” Ackroyd and Harvey Ackroyd and Harvey

British artists Ackroyd and Harvey created a series of living artworks to mark the main entrances of the Park. Ten specimen trees, chosen to reflect the biodiversity of the Park, each support a large bespoke metal ring within their crown. The rings, engineered from bronze or stainless steel, are six metres in diameter and individually engraved on the interior face with text capturing an archive of history from each location.

The ring on the Metasequoia nearest the London Aquatics Centre is inscribed with local residents’ recollections of the area. To mark the opening of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games the shadow cast from the ring aligns each year with a bronze ellipse laid into the ground.

For the full inscriptions of each of the rings visit ackroydandharvey.com.

History Trees was supported by Mapping the Park to at entrances locations Ten Your Manor, a project by artist Lucy 1 Harrison, who worked with local people to record shared stories and memories. These personal accounts informed the words on the rings – a way to remember the stories of the Park and its surroundings.

To download recordings from the project visit mappingyourmanor.com.

Supported by Arts Council England

Sawn Cattle Bone / Manufacture Of Buttons / Buried Olympic Running Track / Two Paleolithic Hand Axes / World War Two Memorials / Roman Burial Vault / Coins Caesar To Constantine / East London Waterworks / Temple Mills Stream / Yellow-Faced Bee / Songthrush And Starlings / Japanese Knotweed

Extract from one of the engraved rings Jo Peel paints the Lea Navigation Canal that 4 5 runs opposite her mural LIVING WALLS and between the Park Various artists and Hackney Wick

Living Walls is an ambitious art programme, stretching over two kilometres in nine different locations and featuring 40 new artworks created specifically for the Park. Crafted with the active participation of residents, schools and organisations in the local community, these works bring an epic scale to the recognisable forms of street and mural art. Commissioned artists include Ben Eine, David Shillinglaw, Mark McClure, Jo Peel, Jeremy Deller, Ruth Ewan and David Batchelor among others. Living Walls was curated and produced by Moniker Projects and Create.

The scale of this project meant that the artists planned each metre of their works meticulously in advance, while also remaining flexible in the ever-changing landscape of the Park. Their works Various locations Various respond to the immediate parameters of these outdoor surfaces, as well as 2 expressing the different visions each artist had for their commission.

“Ordinary hoardings have been transformed into diverse artworks, bringing character and energy to the Park, and connecting it to the local area.” Frankie Shea, Director, Moniker Projects

“Living Walls brought some of the many visual languages of the streets of east London into the Park. We were pleased to involve over 100 artists and hundreds more local residents in the process.” Hadrian Garrard, Director, Create 6 7

Living Walls Living Walls THE REVIEW TAPESTRY Ben Eine David Shillinglaw Corner of Temple Mills Lane and Honour Lea Avenue and Honour Lea Mills Lane Temple of Corner

2 Where the Bayeux tapestry meets modern London, Shillinglaw’s Carpenters Road, between London Aquatics Centre and Carpenters Lock and Carpenters Centre Aquatics London between Road, Carpenters wall captures this changing area

2 of east London, as told through the voices and visions of the local community.

Prolific, enigmatic street artist Eine’s inspiration is the proposed plan Artist David Shillinglaw expresses a vivid, Ben Eine has created his for a new cultural quarter on the Park. playful, multicultural intrepretation of east He painted adjoining adjectives in his largest mural yet, stretching a London, drawing on more than 150 stories Iconic symbols draw on Ancient Egyptian iconic trademarked circus font, merging gathered in the run-up to and legacy of hieroglyphs and children’s board games, monumental 400 metres and descriptions and anticipation of what was the London 2012 Games by journalist, while intricate details and quotations bringing together past, present here, and what is still to come. Eine’s work producer and presenter Anna Delaney. suggest social context, evidence of and future. appears in many locations in London, Paris, Over the course of four months, Delaney Shillinglaw’s urge to document and capture Stockholm, Hastings, Newcastle, and even interviewed local people in social spaces the world around him. the White House, famously gifted by David such as tea dances, community hubs and Cameron to Barack Obama in 2010. schools, which informed ‘Tapestry’. 8 9

Living Walls Living Walls UPHOARDING MEET ME IN THE CITY Lea Valley Walk, south of Monier Bridge of south Walk, Valley Lea

Mark McClure 2 Jo Peel Lea Valley Walk by The Slipway and White Post Lane Post and White The Slipway by Walk Valley Lea

Sustainability, recycling and 2 This significant new commission upcycling are celebrated in this from artist Jo Peel realises her artwork which reclaims the term signature cityscapes and ‘hoarding’ to mean keeping things paintings of local landmarks for a future purpose. in three dimensions.

Artist Mark McClure transforms salvaged Meet Me in the City is an impressive materials into something of beauty and depiction of a love story lost in the use across 210 metres of hoarding, making complexity of a growing city, and the visible the process of reuse and recycling. A local artist, McClure works from ever-evolving area of Hackney Wick Buildings emerge from the painted lines, Geometric wooden tiles are interspersed Walthamstow and employed a number across the canal. An accompanying stop- views are revealed through tiny windows – with a series of 10 intricate ‘beacon’ of local apprentices in the making of motion animation brings this love story look closely and the hoarding is rich with artworks, like vertical sculptures, which this artwork. alive through lost messages and passing detail and story. have been crafted from waste timber ships in an ode to the perfection of an sourced from the transformation of Queen imagined relationship. Watch Peel’s stop-motion animation at Elizabeth Olympic Park and local businesses. livingwalls-london.com/meet-me-in-the-city Living Walls 10 11 YOUR AD HERE Various Artists

Your Ad Here is a celebration of the local independent businesses that are such an integral part of east London’s community and economy. Thirty-five artists partnered up with 35 local businesses from car- washes to corner shops, bakers to hairdressers. Launched in April 2014 to mark the reopening of the whole Park, the adverts celebrate the individual characters who make up the rich and diverse local economy around this changing part of London.

The businesses and their artists:

Aryubi Express Genica Ear Nana Café Nat & Lew

Barnes & Webb Olivia Whitworth Newham Bookshop Bridget Meyne

Bikeworks Year 9 pupils, Rinkoff’s Bakery Uddin & Elsey Kingsford Community School Rockalily Cuts Claire Guiller Blackhorse Workshop Rosie Eveleigh Smallholders Bruce Ingram Charlie’s Barbers Josh McKenna Snap Paul Pateman Choosing Keeping David Batchelor Star Hand Car Wash Samara Scott Community Links Benjamin Murphy Stepney City Farm Mason London E. Brooks & Sons Fruiterers Hannah Dickins Stour Space Nick Creber E.W. Moore & Sons James Brown The Butcher’s Shop Pixel Press Finger Licking Lucas Price The Hackney Pearl We Are Laura Hardwick Textiles Karen Colley The Railway Tavern Jon Barker outside the Energy Centre, by Lane Post – On White locations Various DLR Pudding Mill Lane by Lane on Marshgate Arena, Box the Copper Hornbeam Café Damien Weighill

The Who Shop Takayo Akiyama 2 Hoxton Trust Colin Priest Toor Supermarket Lucy Woodhouse La Forchetta Lauren Godfrey Trevi Restaurant Jeremy Deller Let’s Roll Year 9 pupils, Turning Earth Ceramics Ian Giles Kingsford Community School Vinyl Pimp Begoña Toledo London Coaching Foundation Antony Ward Voodoo Ray’s Zak Keene

Lot One Ten We Love Trainers Ashley McCormick Sebastian Harding William Morris Gallery Jeremy Deller

Mother Studios Marie-Louise Jones Wilton’s Way Year 9 pupils, Mother’s Hub Ruth Ewan Kingsford Community School “There’s a tradition of sculpture 12 13 doing a job. I tend to find a job STELES that I haven’t been asked to do and then I do it.” Keith Wilson Keith Wilson

Thirty-five striking and colourful posts line the Waterworks River, bringing a distinctive identity to one of the main waterways in the Park. Both sculptural and functional, like a chain of minimalist pop monoliths, they evoke nautical waymarkers and have been made from the same durable material as navigational water buoys. The Steles are also practically useful as mooring posts, referencing the ongoing and historical activity of boats and barges in this area.

The sleeves of the Steles are sprayed with a tough polyelastomer coating, a kind of plastic, that hardens as it dries. Wilson has experimented with covering a range of everyday objects in this material, including a bright orange armchair that can be seen at the View Tube. To install the Steles, a bespoke clamp was made that dropped each sleeve into place from Waterworks River Waterworks a floating pontoon. 3 You can watch a video of the making of Steles at keithwilsonstudio.com.

Step down to the pontoons to see Wilson’s diagram of Steles reveals the careful planning of the sequence of colours the Steles up close SINCE 9/11 14 15 Miya Ando

New York City artist Miya Ando was commissioned by UK-based educational charity SINCE 9/11 to create an artwork to commemorate the 9/11 attacks in New York City. Standing over eight metres tall, the artwork is formed from a piece of steel recovered from Ground Zero in New York City, gifted to the UK by the Port Authority of New York City and New Jersey in 2010.

A polished, light-reflecting surface forms the heart of the sculpture, where the metal has been refinished. By contrast, the columns remain unchanged in a pure, honest and respectful treatment of the material. By night, low levels of ambient lighting create a serene environment, illuminating the interior while the outer planes seem to form a protective shell around this warm, almost quietly breathing core.

The charity SINCE 9/11 teaches students about the events, causes and consequences Centre Aquatics the London to Close of the terrorist attacks on New York City, 4 and encourages respect and harmony between young people of all faiths, religions and races.

“I see the piece as being a very important non-denominational, spiritual, transcendent work... I bring my family tradition from the sword-smith turned Buddhist priests who raised me in Japan and my approach of reverence and compassion that I learned in the Buddhist temple I grew up in.”

Miya Ando WILD SWIMMER 16 17 Jo Shapcott

This poem by Jo Shapcott imagines the Park from water level. “Dive in,” she writes, encouraging you to “swim” through the poem and the past, as you look out over the Park’s canals and rivers. Shapcott uses the metaphor of water to explore the fluid and changing history of this part of east London, from Alfred the Great to the Industrial Revolution. The poem finishes by emerging into the London Aquatics Centre designed by Zaha Hadid, in a contemporary celebration of architecture, energy and achievement. “Swim your heart out,” Shapcott writes, “for you are all gold.”

There are over eight kilometres of waterways in and around the Park, which have been important to civilisation for centuries. From the time of the Vikings right up to the present day, the waterways have connected inland communities with London and the bustling Thames. These histories, accumulating like silt over time, are the inspiration for Shapcott’s poem.

This image (left) by artist Neville Gabie is taken in the London Aquatics Centre where Shapcott’s poem ends. It was part of his

project Twelve Seventy, developed during his Road near Carpenters structure on wooden Engraved residency on the Park. The swimmer is one of the Park’s former bus drivers, who was the 5 first person to swim in this pool in 2011.

See page 32 for more about Gabie’s work as the Park’s artist-in-residence.

... Here, the River Lea became a man-made mesh of streams and channels to drain the marsh, a maze for lightermen, of channels through old waste, today’s liquid green corridors. Bow Back Rivers Count off rivers as you swim: Bow Creek, the Waterworks, beside Marshgate Lane in 2005, the Channelsea, the City Mill, Hennikers Ditch... south of the From ‘Wild Swimmer’ Stadium 18 19 Montfichet Road Montfichet Carpenters Road Carpenters A CARPENTER’S CURVE B BRICK FIELDS 6 Clare Woods 6 Clare Woods

Brick Fields and Carpenter’s Inspired by her time living Curve by British artist Clare in and around east London, Woods are large-scale artworks Woods based her paintings that wrap around the facades on imagery of the waterways of two utility buildings. Woods and an imagined future of first created the artworks as vast the landscape. She chose to paintings. These were transferred make the mural from ceramic onto over 88,000 ceramic tiles tiles in reference to the area’s using digital printing and water manufacturing history as the site jet cutting techniques, making it of the former Bow tile factory. the most complex tile mural in the world. Clare Woods at work on her large-scale painting before it was transferred to the tiles Simpson punched the holes closely 20 21 together to create OPEN FOLDS undulating lines similar to those DJ Simpson found on maps

Open Folds is a large-scale artwork in two parts that wraps around two utility buildings. One artwork has been created from dark anodised aluminium to increase its resistance to weather, while the other has a natural anodised silver finish. Punched-out holes form patterned lines that run horizontally across the artwork, representing an abstract interpretation of a landscape.

Simpson’s art practice focuses on linemaking. In creating Open Folds, he experimented with different ways of making lines before deciding to use a series of dots to create lines that still looked hand drawn.

Throughout the manufacturing process, Simpson wanted the artwork to retain this feeling of being handmade, and worked closely with the people who made it to explore different ways of punching the holes that would stay true to the qualities of the original drawings.

“The combined effect of the hole and the uneven deformation

from the punched dimple gives Road Carpenters Road and on Montfichet tile murals Woods’ Behind Clare

the line a random quality. The 7 metal starts to look more fluid and pliable, like an unpicked line of stitching in cloth.” DJ Simpson

One of Simpson’s original drawings 22 23 By the Stadium By

STREAMLINE 14 FAST, FASTER, FASTEST Jason Bruges Studio Jason Bruges Studio Railway underpass next to Montfichet Road Montfichet to next underpass Railway

Beneath the railway that leads 8 Running the length of one of into Stratford, following the the Stadium island bridges, Fast, Waterworks River, a series of Faster, Fastest is an interactive motion-activated LED illuminations artwork that encourages people light up the underpass, in a fluid, to compete against the lightning rippling installation. This artwork speeds of their Olympic and by Jason Bruges Studio illustrates Paralympic heroes. A sequence the speeds of athletes and patterns of lights races across the bridge made by their movements in and up a towering beacon that the water. As you walk through, marks your speed as you chase the lights mimic the shadows of the winning times. Press the button to start, then time your run against the lights that race swimmers overhead, immersing Swimmers from the London 2012 Games up the beacon you in an underwater atmosphere. were the inspiration for Streamline Fast, Faster, Fastest will be activated in 2016. Joan Littlewood “Everyone an artist, campaigning to 24 25 everyone a scientist.” save Theatre Royal Joan Littlewood THE FUN PALACE in Stratford from demolition in Caroline Bird the 70s

Poet Caroline Bird wrote this poem about the life and work of Joan Littlewood who, among other things, was the life-force behind the Theatre Royal in Stratford, which is still a landmark cultural venue now known as Theatre Royal Stratford East. In the 1960s, Joan conceived the Fun Palace with architect Cedric Price to be built on the site of the Park; a ground-breaking arts and education centre that would welcome everybody. Although never built, Joan’s work on the Fun Palace and her infectious personality remain an inspiration to many.

It is a love story. Joan and her theatre workshop. They found a crumbling old slum in E15. They slept illegally in the eaves like ghosts with unfinished business. She created Oh What A Lovely War. She shovelled rubble from Angel Lane. She said, ‘Let the waters close over me.’ She was an outsider. She grafted. She changed the world...

From ‘The Fun Palace’

October 2014 marked 100 years since Littlewood was born. A nationwide celebration of the Fun Palace headed by writer and theatre maker Stella Duffy saw hundreds of organisations and artists Orbit the ArcelorMittal of south structure on a wooden Engraved

across the UK celebrate Littlewood’s 9 quest for engagement through a wealth of different projects. Many of the current and future arts and culture programmes on the Park will keep this ethos of the Fun Palace at their core, in the place where Littlewood had originally envisioned it.

For more information, visit funpalaces.co.uk FANTASTIC FACTOLOGY 26 27 Klassnik Corporation, Riitta Ikonen, We Made That

All over the Park, tucked away on silver plaques set into benches, amazing facts and local recollections tell an alternative story of the Park and provide an opportunity to wonder and learn. Topics as diverse as astrology and zoology sit alongside more personal memories and thoughtful moments. The project was a collaboration between London-based architecture and design studio We Made That, artist Riitta Ikonen, and the Klassnik Corporation, an interdisciplinary design practice.

Over 2,000 facts were submitted by both local residents and famous people, such as the late astronomer Patrick Moore and mathematician Johnny Ball. These weird and wonderful fragments of knowledge are an unusual twist on the traditional park bench plaque. This is one of more than 50 locations around the Park around than 50 locations more This is one of 13

The design team ran a series of events and participatory workshops to inspire and collect facts, asking everyone from school children to senior groups.

Seek out more See also Fantasticology on page 57 by than 50 facts Klassnik Corporation, Riitta Ikonen and hidden around We Made That. the Park 28 29 All 2,000 cubes were handmade in Leytonstone from hardwearing Move onto text page Accoya® wood. and lose one of the They were carefully sanded diagrams and scorched by hand to create the dark surfaces By the Stadium By The Podium 11 ARCELORMITTAL ORBIT 12 PIXEL WALL Sir Anish Kapoor, Cecil Balmond Tomato

Towering at 114.5 metres tall and constructed Created by Tomato, a London- using recycled steel, the ArcelorMittal Orbit is based design collective, Pixel the UK’s tallest sculpture, designed by artist Wall stretches across the outside Sir Anish Kapoor and designer Cecil Balmond. of the Podium café.

This sculpture takes the form of a Reflecting on the immersive presence continuous loop from start to finish, of technology in our daily lives, this a creative representation of the 2012 interactive wall gives a playful form to Games and the extraordinary physical and the building block of digital images – the emotional effort that people undertake pixel. Over 2,000 wooden cubes have been when they compete. From the top, the The ArcelorMittal Orbit was commissioned handcrafted to produce light and dark entire Park stretches out in front of you, by the Mayor of London for the London surfaces. Threaded onto steel rods, the pixel framed by London’s distinctive skyline. 2012 Games and largely funded cubes can be turned to create patterns, by ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest text or images, transforming the wall into Find out more: arcelormittalorbit.com steel company. a giant message board and artist’s canvas. INTER ALIA 30 31 Grenville Davey

Artist Grenville Davey worked with local people and students from the Royal College of Art to develop an installation around the idea of ‘making your mark’. Davey chose to represent the hands of the many different people he worked with by creating abstract ‘fingerprints’ that disrupt the flat surface of a wall in the 2012 Gardens, as if many hands of different sizes had pressed their fingers into the wet concrete. Cast in aluminium bronze, these 61 individual markers can be found along a wall stretching over 90 metres. ‘Inter Alia’ means ‘between things’.

“The work reflects a human presence in the form of a series of hand prints, cast in aluminium bronze at various scales. They are reminiscent of the finger in the icing, on an industrial scale.” Grenville Davey 2012 Gardens, near Carpenters Lock near Carpenters 2012 Gardens, During the workshops, Davey encouraged

participants to think about what it might 15 mean to leave a trace of your identity on a public space. Together, the groups explored casting personal objects in concrete, messages in bottles and leaving behind hand and finger prints.

Can you find the tiniest fingerprint on the wall? Working drawings from Gabie’s 32 33 FREEZE FRAME sketchbook Neville Gabie

In addition to the permanent artworks, a number of temporary projects were developed during the construction of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. For 16 months during 2010 and 2011, Neville Gabie was the artist-in-residence of the Park as it was being built – the first residency of its kind in any Olympic Park to date. During this period, Gabie created seven works, one of which was Freeze Frame, to tell the stories of the diverse workforce of over 10,000 people who built the Park for the London 2012 Games, and explore how they interacted with their developing surroundings.

The idea for Freeze Frame came when Gabie saw the first visualisation (right) for the north of the Park, which immediately sparked a connection for him to the 1884 painting ‘Bathers at Asnières’ by Georges Seurat. Gabie planned a photograph that would recreate Seurat’s painting as a ‘tableau vivant’, using the backdrop of the Park and people from the teams of specialist landscape gardeners, security staff, engineers and designers.

Taking the photograph on an extremely busy building site required careful choreography to get everyone in their right positions for that split-second of a camera click. The final image (see page 34) was printed as the centrefold in the Metro newspaper on 25 January 2012, with over three million copies distributed across the UK.

To find out more about the projects that came out of Gabie’s residency, visit greatlengths2012.org.uk.

Supported by Arts Council England 34 35 RUN 36 37 Monica Bonvicini

RUN is a glass and stainless steel artwork made up of three huge letters by artist Monica Bonvicini, each measuring nine metres high. Inspired by the many references to running in popular songs, its meaning is deliberately ambiguous, both serious and satirical. The artwork represents a bold architectural statement on one of the highest points of the Park. In daylight, RUN is a vast mirror for you and your surroundings. By night, the letters glow with lines of internal LED lighting that seem to extend endlessly into the mirrored interior. Copper Box Arena Box Copper “Born to Run First Run 16 Run, Run, Run Run Devil Run Dry Run.” Monica Bonvicini

The construction of RUN was complex. Steel frames for each letter were shipped from the Czech Republic. Once on the Park, curved internal mirrors, rows of LED lighting and a reflective cladding were installed. This 10-week process called for very precise production and installation methods, many of which had never been attempted before.

Watch a timelapse video of building RUN at As dusk falls, watch as QueenElizabethOlympicPark.co.uk/arts-and-culture. RUN transforms from a reflective surface to Supported by the Mayor of London glowing sculpture ONE WHIRL 38 39 Martin Richman

Local artist Martin Richman is the creator of two related artworks, both of which use Park infrastructure. One Whirl is incorporated into a bridge over the River Lea. Made from recycled glass, the shapes are inspired by the flow of water in the Park and the energy of the London 2012 Games. Dynamic spirals texture the surface of the bridge directly contrasting with the practical function of the bridge.

“The graphic vitality of the spirals suggests the coiling and release of energy which athletes bring, and echoes the flow of water through the Park.” Martin Richman Bridge over the River Lea, leading to Timber Lodge Café Timber Lodge leading to Lea, the River over Bridge 17

For Richman, the spiral is a recurring This photograph (above) taken in 2011 motif across cultures, space and time. shows Richman’s artwork on the permanent The revolving loops have a sense of both part of the bridge. repetition and progression – an appropriate symbol for life’s journey of incremental See also Underwhirl on page 50 change and growth. The bold graphic by Martin Richman. shapes enhance the familiar structure of the bridge, drawing attention to this space Cast a shadow and altering its relationship to us. across the dynamic spirals of One Whirl “If you sit down in Cross and Step into the shelter of Cross 40 41Cave, with things on your mind, and Cave CROSS AND CAVE you think: how would you solve that problem?” Heather and Ivan Morison Child interviewed in Cross and Cave documentary

Emerging like ruins from the future, Cross and Cave appear as two elemental shelters that create inviting cave-like spaces within their simple arrangement of leaning concrete slabs. Cross has two shelter spaces, formed by intersecting slabs, while Cave provides a secluded space accessible from one side. The dark colour and angular construction reflect the industrial history of this area.

Artists Heather and Ivan Morison are known for their shelters in public spaces. Their practice investigates the edges of cities, landscapes that are halfway between the urban and the wilderness. For the artists, caves are portals through which we can escape, as well as shelters from the things we can’t escape. Two locations in Tumbling Bay playground in Tumbling locations Two B Cross and Cave are made from concrete

cast in wooden moulds. The timber was A first burnt with a blowtorch to transform

the wood and bring out its unique texture 18 so that the sculptures would bear the marks of the wood grain directly onto their surfaces. Local timber from the south of England and Wales was used, because of its wider grain. As each artwork measures over five metres wide they could only be transported to the Park at night, and were lowered into place at dawn on an April morning in 2013.

The Cross and Cave commission was supported by a group of young filmmakers from east London. You can watch their five-minute documentary about the artworks at QueenElizabethOlympicPark.co.uk/arts-and-culture. Put your head inside the 42 43 Spiegelei to see SPIEGELEI JUNIOR the Park upside Jem Finer down

Conceived as both a sculptural work on the outside and a working observatory on the inside, Spiegelei Junior reflects and inverts the surrounding landscape using the simple technologies of the mirror and the lens. Inside, the camera obscura creates an immersive, 360-degree panoramic projection, illuminating the spherical interior with an upturned living image of the Park. The sphere also echoes with sounds from the outside world, transformed by the acoustics of the orbicular space.

Landscape, time, space and the cosmos Spiegelei Junior’s larger relation, Spiegelei, are central to the practice of artist Jem a spherical camera obscura two metres Finer, whose work includes Longplayer, a in diameter, has also been on show at the 1,000-year-long musical composition, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Trinity Buoy Wharf in Tower Hamlets. Top of slope by the Olympic Rings slope by of Top 19

Sketch by Jem Finer and Julia King

Spiegelei Junior was first commissioned as part of a series of temporary artworks to celebrate the Park’s reopening in September 2013. Three spheres were installed for eight months across the landscape. Owing to their popularity, this one has remained on the Park and you can find another at the View Tube. THE SPARK CATCHERS 44 45 Lemn Sissay

Local poet Lemn Sissay wrote this poem inspired by the former Bryant and May match factory and the first strikes in British history that took place there, led by women’s rights activist Annie Besant. The factory women, many of whom were younger than 16, protested against their appalling working conditions which caused them both injury and illness. In 1888 when the factory’s owners erected a statue of Prime Minister William Gladstone paid for, in part, by the workers’ wages, the women took action and refused to go to work.

Tide twists on the Thames and lifts the Lea to the brim of Bow Where shoals of sirens work by way of the waves. At the fire factory the fortress of flames In tidal shifts East London Lampades made Millions of matches that lit candles for the well-to-do And the ne’er-do-well to do alike. Strike ...

From ‘The Spark Catchers’

Sissay’s poem presents the factory women Bridge Knight’s by Lea the River side of West as ‘spark catchers’ – people affected by a momentary ‘spark’ who allow it to grow 20 into something larger. The poem plays with the word ‘strike’, to mean both igniting a match and going on strike from work. Sissay also calls attention to the nature of fire, which, like the factory workers, can be unpredictable. ‘The Spark Catchers’ is itself an explosive poem, and the fact that it clads one of the electricity transformers on the Park is particularly appropriate.

Both the factory and the statue still exist today – the factory has been converted into modern apartments on the edge of the Women at work Park in Bow, and Gladstone’s statue can be in the Bryant and found by Bow Church. May match factory in Bow, c. 1913 “lfo spectrum is an alternative 46 47representation of the Olympic LFO SPECTRUM Emblem with the five Olympic Rings transformed into an image Carsten Nicolai of a low-frequency oscillation sound wave.” Carsten Nicolai Reaching 2.5 metres high, lfo spectrum enlivens a security fence close to Lee Valley VeloPark velodrome. The artwork is an alternative representation of the Olympic Rings. German artist Carsten Nicolai converted the five rings into an image of a low-frequency oscillation (LFO) sound wave. Using the colours of the sunset, the wave was digitally printed onto the fence, with five cycles of intensity that seem to pulse across the artwork. Lee Valley VeloPark Valley Lee 21

This was a highly unusual commission – Like other installations by Carsten Nicolai, the first known example of artwork on a lfo spectrum questions the certainty of security fence. The most complex issue was what we see. Here, the different shades of how to print the colours onto the fence so colour alter our perception of the artwork that it could be robust enough for security depending on where we stand and the time purposes as well as weather resistant. of day. The varying intensity of the colours Stand back to see The team tried numerous methods of means that the fence sometimes appears how lfo spectrum applying colour to the fence before to be very solid, while at other points, it changes in the discovering a printer in the north of may seem more transparent. light depending England with facilities large enough to on the time of day accommodate the vast panels. ETON MANOR 48 49 Carol Ann Duffy

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy wrote this poem inspired by the rich history of the Eton Manor site to the north of the Park, once known as ‘The Wilderness’. Here, at the beginning of the 20th century, a sports ground was founded by four pioneering men who had attended Eton School and now wanted to give something back to the community. The Eton Manor Boys’ Club existed for over 100 years, providing a place for underprivileged boys and men to take part in sports, and creating a memorable spirit of camaraderie and community.

Landscape, time, space and the cosmos are central to the work of artist Jem Finer, whose work includes Longplayer, a thousand year-long musical composition; and Everywhere All The Time, a drawing machine animated by signals from the hiss and static of the early universe. Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre and Tennis Hockey Valley Lee 22

Duffy’s long-term collaborator, Stephen Raw, designed the poem and worked with a local sign maker in Hackney who cut the letters from brass using water jet cutting techniques, before inlaying them into treated stainless steel panels.

... This is legacy – young lives respected, cherished, valued, helped to sprint, swim, bowl, box, play, excel, belong; believe community is self in multitude – the way the past still dedicates to us its distant, present light. The same high sky, Eton Manor boys boxing same East End moon, above this reclaimed wilderness, in the gym, where relay boys are raced by running ghosts... 1949

From ‘Eton Manor’ UNDERWHIRL 50 51 Martin Richman

Local artist Martin Richman is the creator of two related artworks, both of which use Park infrastructure. Underwhirl extends the length of an underpass beneath the busy A12 road, connecting the Park with Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre. Large, vibrant swirls, made from glass beads set into coloured plaster, transform what could have been a dark, uninteresting passageway into a bright, vibrant space. As you move through, the spirals seem to alter your sense of perspective through the patterns that suggest the coiling and release of energy – a suitable visual metaphor for a developing Park and the place that hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.

Richman’s practice explores our perceptions of the spaces we inhabit, and how light can change these. For him, the city is alive with accidental flourishes that sparkle or alarm, which are sometimes like jewels and at other times even irritating. Each swirl in Underwhirl is composed of hundreds of tiny glass beads, painstakingly installed over a vast scale, that glitter and shift as you walk past.

“I can get just as excited about an ugly tower block as a really exquisite space. Often it’s the small everyday things that are more interesting to me.” Underpass from Temple Mills Lane to Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre, beneath the A12 Centre, and Tennis Hockey Valley Lee to Mills Lane Temple from Underpass Martin Richman 23

See also One Whirl on page 38 by Martin Richman.

Run your hands across the coloured glass beads to feel the textures BICYCLING FOR LADIES 52 53 John Burnside

Poet John Burnside was inspired by the suffragette and cyclist Sylvia Pankhurst and the women of Bow who campaigned for women’s rights at the turn of the 20th century. The poem looks back to the radical history of this part of east London, remembering women cyclists as emblems of a changing world.

... Between the morning and the evening wash they dream of riding out, like Pankhurst girls, in Rational Dress, on shiny new machines, to Waltham Abbey, Thornwood, Magdalen Lever… Landscape, time, space and the cosmos From ‘Bicycling for Ladies’ are central to the work of artist Jem Finer, whose work includes Longplayer, a thousand year-long musical composition; and Everywhere All The Time, a drawing The first part of the poem looks longingly machine animated by signals from the hiss from the perspective of women who and static of the early universe. dreamed of “riding out” to revel in the “solitude of some far crossroads”. Burnside then dreams of a ghostly Sylvia Pankhurst revived from history, followed by hordes of women cyclists. The poem ends with a Spiegelei Junior’s larger relation, Spiegelei, haunting reminder of how the acts of the VeloPark Valley in Lee the BMX tracks to Next a spherical camera obscura two metres in past can be easily forgotten as the modern diameter, has also been on show at the 24 world cycles away. Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Spiegelei Junior was first commissioned Burnside was inspired by historical as part of a series of temporary artworks sources, drawing on a well-known women’s curated by Parabola to celebrate the Park’s liberation pamphlet entitled ‘Bicycling for opening. Three spheres were installed Ladies’, as well as other material from the across the landscape from September 2013 Sylvia Pankhurst archives. The poem also to April 2013. Owing to their popularity, includes the words of the women who this one has remained on the Park and you worked with Pankhurst in east London, can find another at View Tube. such as Nellie Cressall.

Women cyclists Tyre marks and a full-scale bicycle have were emblems of been etched into the wooden structure, a changing world alongside the poem at the turn of the 20th century 54 55 “You are right here, right now.” Jeppe Hein

Tennyson’s words are set into an undulating wall in East Village, opposite Chobham Academy. This open space is now called Ulysses Place after the poem Stratford Hill, East Village Hill, East Stratford ULYSSES Village East Place, Ulysses MIRROR LABYRINTH 26 Alfred, Lord Tennyson 25 Jeppe Hein

Chosen by the public for its power and universal ...To strive, to Taking the Olympic Rings as inspiration, Mirror appeal, ‘Ulysses’, published in 1842, was the seek, to find Labyrinth, by artist Jeppe Hein, is formed of winning poem in a national campaign launched and not to multiple mirrored steel lamellae (thin plate-like by BBC Radio 4 before the London 2012 Games. yield... structures) arranged in concentric circles with

The aim was to find an inspirational text relevant From ‘Ulysses’ openings on opposite sides that encourage you to both the athletes and future residents to come. to step inside this maze.

Tennyson’s poem describes a restless in the former Athletes’ Village as a The many reflections that play out across Hein has created various mazes and hero, Ulysses, an ancient Greek explorer powerful example of how language can the multifaceted surfaces produce a labyrinths around the world, each unique who after wandering the world is now encourage and inspire. Ulysses is now fragmented view of the space that can to its own location. He is also known for only sustained by the idea of living life located directly outside a school, feel both disorientating and playful. his Appearing Rooms water installation to the full, despite age or obstacle. The a fitting location for the legacy of at the Southbank Centre each summer. last verse of the poem was selected by a such an inspirational poem. high-profile literary panel to be installed 56 57 The Greenway 28

CLOUDS BRIDGE FANTASTICOLOGY Oscar Bauer and Nazareno Crea Klassnik Corporation, Riitta Ikonen, We Made That

Inspired by the vast expanses East Stratford Royal the Theatre opposite Bridge, Lane Angel of sky that can be seen over

27 The Greenway is a path stretching the Park, design students Oscar from Hackney Wick to Beckton Bauer and Nazareno Crea created following the route of London’s an artwork that aimed to give the Northern Outfall Sewer, designed locals back their skyline, during a by Joseph Bazalgette in 1858. period of intense construction. Distinctive pillars mark three points along South of the ArcelorMittal Orbit the ArcelorMittal of South A grid of almost 30,000 squares reflects A complicated laser cut stencil was used to the path along with patterned concrete

the geometry of the East Village residential give a pixellated effect and different paints 10 floor surfaces and sculptural barrier blocks. blocks behind. From a distance, the were tested on the concrete. Bauer and These works embrace the unusual history The same creative team used wildflower intricate grid reveals cloud patterns Crea developed the winning design as part of this path by using motifs from manhole meadows to recreate the footprints of old painted against an optimistic blue sky. of a competition organised with the Royal covers on the pillars, and incorporating bits industrial buildings, from large chimney College of Art and supported by artist of broken porcelain toilets and sinks found stacks to yards and warehouses, in a floral Richard Wentworth. on the Park before its construction. celebration of the area’s history. 1 HISTORY TREES 7 OPEN FOLDS 13 FANTASTIC FACTOLOGY 19 SPIEGELEI JUNIOR 24 BICYCLING FOR LADIES Ackroyd and Harvey p2 DJ Simpson p20 Klassnik Corporation, Jem Finer p42 John Burnside p52 Riitta Ikonen, We Made That 1 of 50 plaques p26

2 LIVING WALLS 8 STREAMLINE 20 THE SPARK CATCHERS 25 ULYSSES Various artists p4 Jason Bruges Studio p22 Lemn Sissay p44 Alfred, Lord Tennyson p54 14 FAST, FASTER, FASTEST Jason Bruges Studio p23

3 STELES 9 THE FUN PALACE 21 LFO SPECTRUM 26 MIRROR LABYRINTH Keith Wilson p12 Caroline Bird p24 Carsten Nicolai p46 Jeppe Hein p55 15 INTER ALIA Grenville Davey p30

4 SINCE 9/11 10 WILDFLOWER MEADOWS 22 ETON MANOR 27 CLOUDS BRIDGE Miya Ando p14 Klassnik Corporation, Carol Ann Duffy p48 Oscar Bauer and Riitta Ikonen, 16 RUN Nazareno Crea p56 We Made That p57 Monica Bonvicini p36

5 WILD SWIMMER 23 UNDERWHIRL Jo Shapcott p16 Martin Richman p50 28 FANTASTICOLOGY 11 ARCELORMITTAL ORBIT 17 ONE WHIRL Klassnik Corporation, Sir Anish Kapoor, Martin Richman p38 Riitta Ikonen, Cecil Balmond p28 We Made That p57

6 A CARPENTER’S CURVE

B BRICK FIELDS 18 A CROSS AND CAVE Clare Woods p18 12 PIXEL WALL Heather and Tomato p29 B Ivan Morison p40 INDEX

LEYTON HACKNEY MARSHES Guttmann Square

1 23 22 LEE VALLEY HOCKEY AND TENNIS CENTRE LEYTON 24 (10 minutes) Mountain bike BMX trails track

LEE VALLEY 21 VELOPARK 1 1 Millrace 2 Meadow Velo Place 19 Chobham Manor 25 Olympic 18 B Open from 2015 Knight’s Rings Hopkins’ Field Bridge 18 A Alfred’s Meadow Tumbling Bay 20 Playground

Here East Victory Park Open 2016 Timber Lodge Café 1 East Village 26 2 17 Eastcross Wetlands Walk Bridge East Wick Agitos Open 2017 HACKNEY The Escarpment WICK 2 STRATFORD 16 INTERNATIONAL 1 Wallis STRATFORD Bridge COPPER BOX ARENA CITY 2 Westﬁeld John Lewis

HACKNEY The International 27 WICK 2 Quarter Open 2017 The Slipway 2 M&S Stratford 2 Sweetwater 15 Waterfront The Open 2019 Mandeville International Place 1 Playground Quarter Theatre Tallow 1 Open 2017 Monier Room Bridge Bridge STRATFORD Great British LONDON Sweetwater Garden AQUATICS Open 2019 CENTRE 4 13 Fountains Since 9/11 3 FISH 14 5 2 1 ISLAND 12 7 The 6 A Lawn

11 7 STRATFORD N THE STADIUM ARCELORMITTAL ORBIT 6 B

9 South Lawn 8 The London Marathon 28 1 Charitable Trust community W E track (open 2017)

S View Tube 1 BROMLEY- PUDDING MILL BY-BOW LANE

ENTRANCE INFORMATION POINT LONDON UNDERGROUND TOILETS AND ACCESSIBLE TOILETS LONDON OVERGROUND ATM

DLR DOCKLANDS LIGHT RAILWAY REFRESHMENTS NATIONAL RAIL SERVICES PLAYGROUND LONDON BUSES CHANGING PLACES TOILET FACILITY PARKING VENUE SPECIFIC PARKING DISABLED PARKING WALKWAYS / CYCLE ROUTES

TRAVEL KEY TRAVEL BUS STOP IN DEVELOPMENT

FACILITIES DIAL-A-RIDE These permanent artworks are just part of our arts and culture programme in and around the Park. Visit our website for details of new temporary art installations, pop-up events, workshops, activities and festivals all year round.

All artworks in this book were commissioned by the Olympic Delivery Authority as the Park was being built for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and by the London Legacy Development Corporation as the Park was transformed post-Games into how you see it today.

Over 150 individuals and organisations were involved in these projects and every one of them was essential to making them happen. From the artists’ visions, to the skill and dedication of the engineers and fabricators, as well as tenacious project managers and visionary leaders – all should be thanked for their part in this story.

This Art in the Park programme has helped to raise the bar of how ambitious and specific artworks can bring a landscape to life and leave a lasting legacy.

QueenElizabethOlympicPark.co.uk

Photography credits

Thierry Bal, pp. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 19, 21, 23, 29, 40 (L), 41, 42 (L), 43, 54. Courtesy of Ackroyd and Harvey, p. 2 (L). Courtesy of Lucy Harrison, p. 2 (R). Courtesy of Keith Wilson, p. 12. Courtesy of Clare Woods, p. 18 (bottom). Courtesy of DJ Simpson, p. 20 (bottom). Adriana Marques, pp. 12 (top), 36 (top), 40. Jason Bruges, p. 12 (bottom). Neville Gabie, pp. 16, 32–35. Nigel Dunnett, p. 57 (bottom). Chris Dorley-Brown, p. 17. Courtesy of Theatre Royal Stratford East Archives, p. 25. Carmen Valino, p. 24, 27, 30 (top), 29, 30 (R). Courtesy of Jem Finer, p. 42 (R). Courtesy of We Made That, p. 26. Olympic Delivery Authority, pp. 20 (top), 28 (bottom), 30 (bottom), 31, 36 (bottom), 44, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 55, 56, 57 (top). Courtesy of Tobaks- & Tändsticksmuseum, p. 45. Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute, p. 49. Courtesy of the Chambers family, p. 53. LLDC, p. 28 (top).

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. LLDC apologises for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this booklet. © 2015 London Legacy Development Corporation